It’s the day before the test and you’re getting down to the wire in terms of studying. However, you can’t seem to stop making new tabs with YouTube, Netflix or Reddit while staring down Blackboard. These distractions can be troublesome as your limited amount of time is now being eaten away from your studying efficiency. Sometimes you can tell yourselves that a five-minute break isn’t a big deal, but those times can stack up against you once you put all of those breaks together.

Instead of taking a bunch of breaks everywhere, why not do bigger chunks of studying without having the temptation to open another tab to distract you? For most people, it’s hard to have that self-control because our minds can run rampant and then you’ll want to go look some piece of information up. Many people who want to become more driven just delete their social media accounts, which is an effective method but it’s also very destructive. There’s a better solution though, an application that doesn’t just block you from popular websites but also helps you with the important skill of moderation.

Introducing the Cold Turkey Blocker! A free application that not only helps you moderate your distractions but completely locks you out of any distracting website for the time declared. If you want to pay an additional fee you can block applications and create a schedule as well. Once the timer for Cold Turkey has started, there’s no undo button, you have to wait out the entire duration! Cold Turkey comes with these default web sites blocked, but you can add as many as you need.

4chan.org

9gag.com

addictinggames.com

amazon.com

boingboing.net

bored.com

break.com

bufferapp.com

buy.com

ebay.com

espn.go.com

facebook.com

feedly.com

flickr.com

fmylife.com

funnyjunk.com

funnyordie.com

instagram.com

penny-arcade.com

pinterest.com

pof.com

reddit.com

runescape.com

stumbleupon.com

theoatmeal.com

twitch.tv

twitter.com

In case that’s not enough and you need to write a paper, there’s an even better way to block out the distractions. Using the Cold Turkey Writer, which is essentially a notepad that locks you out of everything until the time limit you have set is over. Another option available is that you can’t close the Writer until the word count you set is complete. Although this seems like a lot in terms of preventing distractions, this forced moderation really helps jumpstart the self-control you might need for the upcoming semester!

Both of these Cold Turkey apps work great on PC/Mac with Google Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer. I can further attest to this as I used both upon writing this article. Check it out!